The wackiest conspiracy theories that were actually true

We recently did a list of the eleven wackiest, ridiculous conspiracy theories and it stirred up some feelings in the comments section. As a way of appeasing those most ardent conspiracy theorists among you, we’ve now assembled this, a list of conspiracy theories that actually turned out to be true, legit things that actually happened.

Business Plot

With all the talk online about monied interests conspiring to damage the presidential campaign of populist reformer Bernie Sanders, the Business Plot is actually kind of topical. But back in 1933, the conspiracy wasn’t to prevent President Franklin D Roosevelt from taking office, it was to remove him in a full-on fascist coup d’état. Though Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified to Congress about the existence of the plot back in 1934, no one was ever prosecuted.

COINTELPRO

A portmanteau of COunter INTELigence PROgram, COINTELPRO was an initiative undertaken by the FBI to discredit and disrupt political organizations, especially those with leftist interests, which FBI Director J Edgar Hoover branded “subversive.” These included covert and even illegal infiltration and surveillance of people and organizations such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, anti-war groups, feminist organizations and many, many more.

Gulf of Tonkin

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was said to have occurred when North Vietnamese ships attacked those of the United States, which then led to Congress passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson the ability to commit United States troops to help Southeast Asian countries threatened by “communist aggression.” This, in turn, led directly to the catastrophic Vietnam War. The problem with all of this? It’s that the Gulf of Tonkin attack didn’t really occur — at least how it was originally claimed — and that while the United States Marines did come across North Vietnamese forces two days prior, it was the Americans that fired first.

Gunpowder Plot

The V for Vendetta graphic novel, the movie based on it and the rise of Anonymous have ensured that those mustachioed, plastic masks are familiar sights to anyone paying much attention to current events. But unless you’re British, you might not realize that the person immortalized on those masks, Guy Fawkes, was part of a Catholic plot to blow up the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder, set off a people’s revolt and then, finally, make King James’ nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, the Catholic Queen of England.

Iran-Contra Affair

Since the middle of the 20th century, the American government has overthrown sovereign states – either through direct intervention or other, more subtle means — like it’s going out of style. One of the earliest instances was the America and England backed ousting of the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, in favor of a more friendly-to-the-West monarchy. In 1979, however, the Shah was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution and groups affiliated with them had taken American hostages in Lebanon. In order to free the hostages, senior members of the Reagan administration sold arms to Iran, breaking an embargo. Of course, freeing the hostages wasn’t the only goal. It was yet another instance of an American conspiracy to manipulate foreign governments, as the sale was also meant to fund the Contras, who were in the middle of trying to fight and over-throw the socialist government of Nicaragua.

Manhattan Project

These days, the Manhattan Project — the United States-led program to create nuclear weapons — is just a fact of history. But to appreciate it as the crazy, mad-scientist conspiracy theory that it was, consider that not only had a nuclear weapon never been produced before, but complete and utter destruction — on a cellular level — was a goal that was as far-fetched and crazy-sounding as it was monstrous. In 2016 money, the project cost $26 billion dollars, and involved the construction of entire towns to see how they held up against nuclear blasts and eventually led to the bombing of entire islands as part of Operation Crossroads.

Project MKUltra

More than any other conspiracy on this list, Project MKUltra sounds like something made up by your craziest, most regrettable Facebook friend. Back in the 1950s, the CIA decided that they needed to do some investigations into the feasibility and possibility of mind control, which ballooned into an all-encompassing exploration of strategies, drugs and even torture techniques meant to be used in interrogations. Most famously, the project gave mind-altering drugs like LSD, mescaline and DMT to subjects as part of the CIA’s research. Notable labrats include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest author Ken Kesey, who went on to help publicize and promote the use of LSD as part of his Merry Pranksters group, and Ted Kaczynski, who went on to become the serial killer known as the Unabomber.

Operation Mockingbird

Operation Mockingbird was also started by the CIA back in the early 1950s, but while MKUltra was meant to manipulate the minds of specific individuals, this conspiracy was intended to affect American culture at large. The campaign involved paying journalists for coverage of the CIA, secretly funding organizations that might align with the CIA’s interests (like the National Students Association) and bankrolling entire magazines. Eventually, the operation extended its reach to international media and even political campaigns.

Operation Northwoods

If you check out places where conspiracy theorists tend to congregate (which is really just the entire internet at this point), it probably won’t take long for you to start seeing mentions of “false flag” operations, which are military or other acts that look like they’re being perpetrated by someone other than who is actually doing them. Operation Northwoods, though it was rejected by the Kennedy administration, was a proposed false flag operation that would commit acts of terrorism that would then be blamed on the Cuban government, justifying a military invasion of the island nation and the eventual overthrow of Fidel Castro’s communist government.

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Without a doubt, the most disgusting, cruel and morally abhorrent conspiracy on this list, the Tuskegee Experiment used rural black men in Alabama as guinea pigs to study the spread and growth of untreated syphilis. Even after funding for the initial study was lost, and with the effectiveness of penicillin in treating syphilis well-documented, the researchers not only failed to treat the men they studied, but they didn’t even tell them that they were infected with the disease. The experiments did damage far beyond just the men who had the disease, however, as 40 of the subjects’ wives got the disease as well, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis, all of which might have been easily prevented.

World Series (1919)

One of the easiest ways to discredit a conspiracy theory is to think about how many people would need to be complicit and silent in order to pull it off. In the case of the Black Sox Scandal, however, that’s exactly what makes this particular conspiracy so impressive. Eventually, eight Chicago White Sox players were banned from baseball for their roll in the conspiracy, but it only happened two years after they worked together to throw the series, as part of a lucrative deal with a group of notorious gamblers.

Did we include your favorite true conspiracy theories? Are there commonly dismissed ones that you think should be added to this list? Tell us in the comments!

Aubrey Sitterson is the creator of SKALD, the ongoing, sword & sorcery serial podcast, with new episodes posted weekly on iTunes, Stitcher & Podomatic. Follow him on Twitter or check out his website for more information.